University Course ‘Not Propaganda For U.S.’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31345, 15 April 1967, Page 14

University Course ‘Not Propaganda For U.S.’

American studies programmes should not be taken to mean propaganda for the United States, said Dr. A. A. Conway yesterday on his arrival to take the first chair of American history in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury. He will also be the chairman of the new inter-disciplinary American studies programme at the university.

Professor Conway said that he would certainly not teach that way and he was certain the American Council of Learned Societies had no such intention when it granted 50,000 dollars to establish his chair and another 25,000 dollars (being matched locally) to provide library books. “Nobody today can ignore America any more than they can ignore Russia or China,”

said Professor Conway. “Indeed I would say there was a need for study in depth of all three. It is essential to proper understanding and anyway these are absorbing studies.” Professor Conway said that he would concede that New Zealand had a considerable interest in the United States as a Pacific neighbour but he doubted whether New Zealand had been “exposed” to America as much as Britain or Europe.

“Most of the world needs to study what America has given modern civilisation apart from Coca Cola and the hamburger,” said Professor Conway. There must be a nice balance in American studies of history, literature, politics, geography and the rest It might not be realised that these studies could range from minority groups in cities and urban development to influences in the arts. “There

is a tremendous and complex civilisation to be studied,” he said.

Professor Conway said it was much too early to say how American studies would develop in Canterbury. He hoped no student would regard it as specialised preparation for a given career. His own aim was to present American studies as part of a really liberal education. Meanwhile, Professor Conway is making private “New Zealand studies.” Everyone he meets is keenly questioned about “the New Zealand weekend,” drinking habits, cultural activities, reading preferences, tastes and origins in entertainment, and so on. He “pumped” this reporter for half an hour on the activities of New Zealanders “who don’t follow football, go to the races, or to the mountains.” He also wanted to know about home life, because his wife and two boys will not join him until August. Professor Conway, an Englishman, who is 46, was senior lecturer in American history at the University College of Wales. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was secretary and editor for the British Association for American Studies.

He was a Commonwealth Fund fellow at the University of Chicago in 1954-55 and Rockefeller fellow at Emery College in Atlanta in 1960-61. Later he was a Fulbright professor at negro colleges in Georgia and North Florida.